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Life of La Marquise de La Fayette 



Jlfe oicAdrienne dcAyen, 

Jby 

/{aiyuerite ^il^ou 

translated from the French 

h 

Sfl^chardS^ller 




^Iphjletcher Seymour 

Chicago 



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The translator is indebted to the Honorable Charle- 
magne Tower for permission to use this rare portrait of 
La Marquise de La Fayette. Mr. Tower writes: "The 
etching was made for me in 1894 by Mr. Rosenthal from 
a photograph of a miniature sent to me by the Marquise 
de Chambrun. It was painted at the time of the marriage 
of Madame de La Fayette" ; — to the members of the 
French Heroes La Fayette Memorial Fund for their photo- 
graphs of the Chateau de Chavaniac, where, in fidelity 
to their American ideals, they are answering the "Cry 
of the Children" of the slain soldiers of France ; — to Mr. 
E. F. Bonaventure for the use of his beautiful portrait of 
La Fayette by Duplessis; — to Miss Marian M. Sands of 
the Print and Engraving Department of the Library of 
Congress for her generous aid. 



SEP -5 1918 



Copyrighted 1918 

by 

Marguerite Guilhou 

(All Rights Reserved) 



^GLA503302 



ILLUSTRATIONS 



Facing Page 

Chateau de Chavaniac lO t^ 



La Marquise de La Fayette 14 ^ 

Le Marquis de La Fayette 18 , 

Painted by Duplessis 

General de La Fayette 28. 

Painted by Guerin 

The Tower, Chavaniac 38 

The Fireplace, Chavaniac 54 "^ 



A Monsieur S. Richard Fuller. 
Cher Monsieur Fuller, 

Voire nom est le premier que je desire lire an 
commencement de ces pages. Avant la guerre 
— dans voire paisible ei charmani appartement 
de Paris — au milieu du cenacle d'amis ei de 
leitres, doni Mme. Fuller et vous etiez Vdme — 
ma modeste initiative liiieraire est nee de voire 
exemple! Vous avez bien voulu, maintenant, 
vous en faire le iraducieur amical, malgre la 
dSpense incessanie de temps, d'energie, ei de 
talent que vous consacrez si genereusemeni a 
voire grande oeuvre ^'des Evacues du Monde." 

Je desirerais que I'Eiude sur Mme. de Lafay- 
ette, si elle a quelque succes, puisse ajouter 
encore a ious ceux que vous recueillez dans vos 
belles conferences, et soit, aussi, un temoignage 
de la sincere ei profonde reconnaissance de, 
voire amie. 

Marguerite Guilhou. 

Paris, ce 20 Mars, 191 8. 
191 rue de I'Universite. 



Life of La Marquise de La Fayette 




Chateau de Chavaniac 
Auvergne 





HE five daughters of Jean Francois de 
Noailles, Duke D'Ayen, and of the 
Duchess, nee Henriette d'Aguesseau, 
were born in the Noailles mansion in 
Paris, situated, in the eighteenth century, in the Rue 
de Rivoli, nearly opposite the Church of St. Roch. 

Here they lived until their marriage, Louise de 
Noailles, Adrienne d'Ayen, Clotilde d'Epernon, 
Pauline de Maintenon, and Rosalie de Montclair, 
and here they had a happy childhood. The great 
court planted with trees, extending as far as the 
Tuileries Garden, was green and full of sunshine 
and of the song of birds, and of the gayety of the 
five sisters, a gayety often aroused by merry but in- 
nocent teasings to which they subjected their teacher, 
Mile. Marin, a little person, dry, thin, blond, pinched, 
susceptible, devoted to her duties and fulfilling them 
admirably. 

At times Mile. Marin took her young pupils and 
their friends on little picnics in the woods of Meu- 

[II] 



Life of Marquise de La Fayette 

don. Here they would have donkey rides. But Mile. 
Marin was so ill at ease and bewildered on her 
donkey that the frolicsome young girls, while sup- 
pressing their laughter, were greatly amused, espe- 
cially when Mile. Marin would slide off on to the 
grass, without being in the least hurt by the fall. 
She would take them also to St. Germain to see their 
grandfather, the Marechal de Noailles. What sou- 
venirs for later days ! What happy hours spent in 
running through the green forest! And when fa- 
tigue obliged them to seek more tranquil pleasures — 
playing games of loto, which the Marechal gaily 
lost. 

But the centre, the soul of this home life, was the 
mother, the Duchess d'Ayen herself; a woman of 
remarkable virtue, depth of character, tender and 
sincere heart, high spirit and superior mind. She 
regulated and supervised carefully the entire educa- 
tion of her daughters. Without attaching too much 
importance to fixed rules in her plans for their in- 
struction, she sought, first of all, to develop their 
individual personality, and to guide each child in 
the path best suited to her own nature. She con- 
sidered that her children should be the first object 
of her solicitude and care, and she devoted to 
them the greater part of her waking hours. Early 
in the morning she gathered them for her morning 

[12] 



Life of Marquise de La Fayette 

greeting and her tender kiss. Then, on her return 
from mass at St. Roch, which she attended daily, 
she again joined them. Frequently she was present 
during their lessons. At three o'clock she dined 
with them in one of the sumptuous halls of the 
Noailles mansion, and then took them to her own 
bedroom, a vast chamber hung with heavy crimson 
damask silk bordered with gold, with an immense 
bed draped with superb hangings. Here she sat in 
a little arm-chair, a table at her side with her snuff 
box, her books, her needles, and surrounding her, 
her five daughters, some in chairs, others seated on 
low tabourets, disputing, gently, which should sit 
nearest to her, and all hanging upon the words 
from their mother's lips, who regarded conversation 
as the best and the most important means of educa- 
tion. ! * i 
The second daughter, Adrienne d'Ayen, who be- 
came later Madame de La Fayette, had a quick mind 
which seized upon difficulties with a determination 
to solve them. She had acquired the habit of argu- 
ing. "I must seem very disputatious," she said to 
her mother, "because you allow us to present our ob- 
jections, but you shall see. Mamma, when we are fif- 
teen, that we shall be more docile than other girls." 
It is true that Madame d'Ayen patiently listened to 
all their reasonings with unwearying kindness, but 

[13] 



Life of Marquise de La Fayette 

she refuted them in such a fashion as to satisfy and 
to convince the child to whom she spoke. 

Then there were readings aloud from the most 
beautiful selections of French literature and poetry. 
Comments on the lessons received from their teach- 
ers were made, and the Duchess taught her daugh- 
ters the art of dictating letters, even before they 
had learned to write. "Everything was done for 
us," says Madame de La Fayette in her biography 
of her mother, written in circumstances we shall un- 
derstand later. "All her faculties were bent on ac- 
complishing our welfare, and on preparing our future 
happiness. The integrity and strength of her mind 
banished from our education all puerilities, and ac- 
customed us from childhood to reason clearly and 
accurately. Her lively tenderness cemented the bond 
of parent and child, and her charming eloquence, 
corroborated by her daily example, made us under- 
stand Christian virtue, which is the principle, the 
support and the reward of virtue." 

"How grateful will be her daughters," writes 
Pauline de Maintenon, Marquise de Montaigu, "to 
have been brought up under the guidance of this in- 
comparable mother, to be animated by sentiments 
that are always true, to fear even the appearance 
of evil, to despise riches, and to know and serve 
God." Madame d'Ayen's religion was strong and 

[14] 




La Marquise de La Fayette 

From a miniature in the possession of the family 



Life of Marquise de La Fayette 

sober; the fervor of her glowing piety was touched 
by an austerity a little Jansenist; and Adrienne in- 
herited from her mother, from childhood, a scrupu- 
lous conscientiousness, which led her to put off her 
first communion until she was fourteen and until 
after her marriage. She then received it with touch- 
ing faith and piety. 

As to the Duke d'Ayen, the father, he was every- 
where except at home. He interested himself in 
chemistry, in the opera, in the affairs of the Court; 
and his life was passed in this amiable and con- 
versational world of the eighteenth century, where 
his rank, his wit and his elegance placed him at the 
front. This maternal training, therefore, was the 
formative influence of the youth of the five sisters, 
who, thus prepared for the future to which their 
birth destined them, became not only the model of 
that society but its ornament, and left there the mark 
of that heroism and piety at which the world still 
marvels. 

When Adrienne (d'Ayen) had reached twelve 
years her marriage became the subject of discussion. 
Her parents were approached in reference to the 
young Marquis de La Fayette, then fourteen. The 
Marquis de La Fayette — "Marie Joseph Yves Gil- 
bert de Mortier, Marquis de La Fayette" — belonged 
to an illustrious house of France, and counted among 

[15] 



Life of Marquise de La Fayette 

his nearest ancestors the Marquise de La Fayette, 
author of "The Princess of Cleves," and of "Zaide," 
written about 1678. 

"Gilbert" was born in an old manoir of the 14th 
century at Chavaniac, in Auvergne, in 1757, a few 
weeks after the death of his father, killed at 
twenty-five at the battle of Meuden. It was in this 
chateau, flanked by four towers and surmounted by 
a belfry, built upon the heights and commanding the 
valley of the river Allier, that the young La Fayette 
was brought up by his mother and his two aunts, 
Mesdames de Chavaniac and de Mortier. He had 
as preceptor a scholarly man, the Abbe Fujon. But 
few reminiscences remain of this solitary and re- 
tired life of his childhood. However, it is recounted 
that the young Gilbert soon made apparent his in- 
trepidity and daring. At eight he scoured woods 
and mountains hunting a hyena which had escaped 
from a menagerie, which it was his dream to find 
and kill( !) to the great alarm and terror of the fem- 
inine household whose watchfulness he had evaded! 
At eleven he was sent to Paris to pursue more serious 
studies. At this time he lost his mother and thus 
found himself in possession of a very considerable 
fortune. For his military education he was entrusted 
by his grandfather to an officer of distinction, and 
at fourteen he entered the Military Academy of 

[16] 



Life of Marquise de La Fayette 

Versailles. Like all the young gentlemen of that 
period he came out from Versailles with his com- 
mission the following year. 

Then it was that, at fifteen, his marriage with 
Mademoiselle d'Ayen was considered. But the 
Duchess, her mother, refused her consent to this 
union. She thought it premature, in view of the 
youth of the suitor, and dangerous because his youth 
was unprotected and his fortune too early acquired. 
But the Duke d'Ayen, her father, insisted, and the 
following year the two children met each other in 
the drawing room of the Noailles mansion in Paris. 

Young La Fayette was very tall, with red hair, 
awkward in his manners and quite shy, as boys of 
that age are apt to be. His dancing was without 
grace; his game of paume not brilliant. But he was 
known as serious, of an excellent character, of a 
bravery without equal, and liked by all of his com- 
rades, with whom he was generous and kind. He 
pleased Adrienne who, a brunette, pretty, with a 
sweet and intelligent expression and modest and 
charming bearing, pleased him equally. And the 
Duchess "accepted for son-in-law," says her daugh- 
ter, "him whom, since then, she has not ceased to 
cherish as a son, and of whom she has felt the great 
value from the first moment she knew him." 

The marriage was celebrated the i ith April 1774, 

[17] 



Life of Marquise de La Fayette 

in the chapel of the Noailles mansion. The child 
wife was not quite fifteen, and the young husband 
not yet seventeen. But the mutual attraction had 
forestalled, with these children, that profound and 
tender sentiment which was to unite and fortify them 
during the thirty-four years of their married life 
through incessant changes of grief and joy. 

The first two years of this union were absorbed 
in presenting the young couple at Court and in taking 
their position in the world. It does not appear that 
Monsieur and Madame de La Fayette very much 
enjoyed this life of fetes and pleasures in which they 
had to take part. He himself, concealing under an 
exterior cold and distant, a most active mind, a 
firm disposition, and a soul on fire, lent himself but 
little to the graces of the Court; and a life of dis- 
sipation was not calculated to please Madame de 
La Fayette any more. She attended, however, with 
her elder sister, Louise de Noailles, married before 
her to her cousin, the Viscount of Noailles, all the 
plays and all the balls of the Court, when she found 
it a matter of duty, and she gave herself to it freely 
and without scruple. 

Her attachment for her husband grew stronger 
and stronger, and already dominated her completely. 

In 1776 she had a daughter whom she named 
Henriette. It was the summer of this same year 

[18] 




Le Marquis de La Fayette 

General Commander of the National Guard of Paris, 1789. 

Painted by Duplessis, 1725 to 1802 

Orifrinal in the possession of Mr. E. F. Bonn-venture of Neiv York 



Life of Marquise de La Fayette 

that La Fayette met at dinner at the Count de 
Broglie's, the Duke of Gloucester, brother of the 
King of England. The subject of conversation dur- 
ing all the dinner was the declaration of independ- 
ence of America; the young officer was full of en- 
thusiasm for a question which he heard discussed for 
the first time, a question fitted to interest his mind 
filled with liberal thoughts and aspirations. He re- 
solved then and there to go to serve the cause of the 
Americans, a cause which Europe, and especially 
France, did not tarry in espousing passionately, 
aroused by the courageous audacity of those who 
were then called the "Insurgents" and the "Boston- 
ians," Fashion followed the general admiration, 
and in the drawing rooms the English game of 
"whist" was replaced by another game, no less grave, 
which was called "Boston." 

"This movement," comments Monsieur de Segur, 
"although it appears quite insignificant, was a nota- 
ble forecast of those great conversions to which the 
whole world later devoted itself." 

The Duke d'Ayen, zealously opposed to the de- 
parture of his son-in-law, and desirous that he 
should accept a position at the Court, did all in his 
power to make the venture fail. He persuaded the 
Minister, Monsieur de Maurepas, to send the young 
man a letter of restraint, and an order, in the name 

[19] 



Life of Marquise de La Fayette 

of the King, to go to Italy. But La Fayette made 
his escape from all these entanglements, and em- 
barked from Spain the 26th April 1777, after six 
months of perseverance and effort. The ship had 
been bought and equipped at his own expense, and 
he gave it the name of La Victoire. Little Madame 
de La Fayette bore with courage this first separa- 
tion, yet with all the sensitiveness of her extreme 
youth. Already sharer in the convictions of her hus- 
band, she admired him in all he undertook, and, 
helped and sustained by her mother, by whose side 
she remained, she judged this expedition, as it has 
since been judged by posterity, and did all in her 
power to calm the irritation of her father, the Duke. 
Shortly before the departure of La Fayette they had 
both attended the marriage of Monsieur de Segur, 
and as everybody there was violently opposed to the 
plan of Monsieur de La Fayette, she hid her tears 
and maintained a calm exterior, not to seem to be in 
affliction, for fear they should bear malice against 
her husband. For him also the parting was painful, 
and his letters were full of tenderness and tears, 
which he did not hesitate to express in French 
fashion. 

I would like to give proof of this by extracts from 
two of his letters. 

[20] 



Life of Marquise de La Fayette 

On Board La Victoire, 30 May 1777. 
I am very far away from you as I write, my- 
dear heart, and to this cruel distance is added 
the uncertainty, still more distressing, of when 
I can get any news from you. What stirrings 
of soul, what fears I must add to the chagrin, 
so acute, of leaving you ! You, who to me are 
the dearest possession in the world. How will 
you bear my departure? Will you love me 
any less for it? Have you reflected that in 
any case I would have to be separated from 
you, wandering in Italy, and there leading a life 
without any glory? I have experienced — be- 
lieve it! — frightful agitations of heart in those 
terrible moments which bore me away from the 
shore! If you but knew all that I suffered in 
thinking of you, of Henriette, of my friends ! 

7 June. 

You will admit, dear heart, that the occupa- 
tion and the life I am to have are very different 
from those which were in store for me in the 
futile journey to Italy. 

Defender of that liberty which I idolize, 
coming myself freer than any one else to. offer 
the services of a friend to that interesting, re- 
public, I bear with me only my sincerity and my 
[21] 



Life of Marquise de La Fayette 

good will; no ambition; no personal interest. 
In laboring for my own glory, I labor for the 
prosperous issue of their efforts. I hope on 
my account you will become a good American. 
It is a sentiment suited to virtuous hearts. The 
welfare of America is bound closely to the wel- 
fare of all humanity. She is to become the 
honored and safe asylum of liberty! 

Adieu ! Darkness does not suffer me to con- 
tinue longer. But if my fingers were to fol- 
low my heart, I should need no daylight to tell 
you how I suffer far away from you, and how 
I love you. 

To follow La Fayette in America from 1777 to 
1784 all his correspondence with his wife would 
have to be quoted during the three expeditions which 
he made. 

From the very first the optimism, the bravery, 
the firmness, and above all the disinterestedness of 
this young hero of nineteen, won for him the atten- 
tion of the United States and the rank of General 
in the army. He fought at Brandywine, near Phila- 
delphia, was wounded there; placed himself again 
as quickly as possible at the head of his soldiers, had 
the mission entrusted to him of administering in all 
the northern states the oath of repudiation of the 
King of England; and also succeeded in so electrify- 

[22] 



Life of Marquise de La Fayette 

ing public opinion in France that the treaty of com- 
merce between that nation and the United States 
was signed. 

The second time, in 1780, he joined Washington 
and Rochambeau in that great adventure which re- 
sulted in the glorious campaign in Virginia, the capit- 
ulation, in 178 1, of the British army, and the as- 
surance of liberty and prosperity to the Americans. 

Finally his voyage in 1784 had for its essential 
feature his solemn reception by the American Con- 
gress. It was then, with the benedictions of a whole 
people, that he set sail from Boston, after superb 
fetes, and the touching farewells of Washington, of 
whom he was proud to call himself the friend, the 
adopted son and the disciple. 

It is not within the scope of my present purpose 
to touch more upon these exciting events. But in 
passing I cannot fail to admire the profound and 
warm friendship which bound the young French of- 
ficer to the American General. Washington had for 
La Fayette the tenderest affection which marked 
his whole conduct. He admired the fact that the 
young nobleman had fled from the most elegant court 
of Europe in order to offer his sword in aid of the 
simple planters of Pennsylvania. His religious soul 
was gratified with the disinterestedness of his friend, 
to whom in his faithful correspondence, and during 

[23] 



Life of Marquise de La Fayette 

the commencement of the Revolution in France, he 
never ceased to give the most affectionate and the 
most sagacious counsel. As to La Fayette, he felt 
that he owed the achievement of his moral value to 
his contact with Washington, with the man whose 
nobility, dignity, delicacy and serenity of soul were 
unequalled among the most noted examples of an- 
tiquity, and for whom he had conceived most pro- 
found veneration. He led Madame de La Fayette 
to share these sentiments, and when they had a son 
he was called George, and Washington became his 
godfather. "General Washington is moved by what 
I have told him of you," writes La Fayette to 
Adrienne in 1780; "he charges me to present to you 
his tenderest sentiments. He has much feeling for 
our son, and is very much touched by the name that 
we have given him." 

Each return and each departure of the Marquis 
de La Fayette caused conflicting emotions in his 
wife; the intoxication of joy at his arrival, the pain, 
the anguish of his absence. "Her sentiment for 
him," writes her daughter, Madame de Lasteyrie, 
"had been deepened by her anxieties and by the 
charm of the moments passed at her husband's side." 
She was not constituted for the exciting agitations of 
glory; and would have preferred a life of calm and 
retirement within her own family. But her alert 

[ 24 ] 



Life of Marquise de La Fayette 

mind, her glowing imagination, and her firm, though 
precocious, reasoning powers, made her a worthy 
companion of a husband of whom she was proud. 
The little family grew. The first child, Henriette, 
died at twenty-two months during the first expedition 
of her father to America, but Anastasie, George and 
the little Virginie came in their turn to console and 
brighten the home. These children spoke English 
as fluently as French. They played and laughed 
with the Americans who came constantly to visit 
their parents, and in a letter written in 1787, Xavier 
de Schomberg describes to his mother the details of 
this charming and simple household. 

During the five years following his final return 
from America La Fayette was not idle. He wished 
to perfect his culture and his military talent by going 
to visit the foreign courts, England and Prussia ; 
then he took an active part in France to restore the 
official registration of the Protestants. 

This was in 1788, and his wife, who combined the 
most liberal principles of tolerance with the most 
ardent religious zeal, helped him and approved his 
course in this courageous campaign. 

Passionately interested in the "American ques- 
tion," the General had bought a property at Cayenne, 
and dreamt of being near Washington to devote him- 
self to the emancipation of the negroes. The re- 

[25] 



Life of Marquise de La Fayette 

liglous soul of Madame de La Fayette was equally 
pleased with this project and she labored already as 
a propagandist with the missionaries and with the 
Americans with whom her husband had begged her 
to correspond. But it was not for America that 
they departed! 

The crisis which was to overturn France became 
each day more imminent, and La Fayette, champion 
of new ideas and of noble enthusiasms, already was 
playing his role in political reform. With his broth- 
er-in-law, the Viscount de Noailles, also recently re- 
turned from America, he had become the oracle of 
the greater part of the youth of France. There 
was indeed a frankness, a warmth and often a sin- 
cere disinterestedness in the manner of discussing, 
in the drawing room, the necessity of the reforms 
which were pressing, and in the two or three years 
preceding 1789 it would be astonishing to find how 
many of the nobility had reached the point of wish- 
ing for more of justice in social matters, and more 
of liberty in the government. 

"Those who have lived during these times," says 
Madame de Stael, "cannot fail to admit that there 
never has been seen so much life and so much wit 
anywhere, and one gets a conception of it by the 
crowds of men of talent, whom circumstances brought 
to the front at that time. Never was society so 

[ 26 ] 



Life of Marquise de La Fayette 

brilliant as during the four or five years which pre- 
ceded 1 79 1. In no country, in no period, has the art 
of conversation in all its forms been so remarkable." 

Soon conversation engendered strife. Monsieur 
de La Fayette preached the abrogation of ancient 
privilege, and would have renounced for himself 
even, as well as for his family, the most substantial 
advantages, in the hope of establishing in France a 
government of freedom. 

The Duchess, who liked and admired her sons- 
in-law, did not share their illusions. She foresaw 
that in gazing at the stars one would end by tum- 
bling Into pitfalls. And in a grave malady which 
she had at this time, and which she believed to be 
mortal, she called about her her daughters, and pre- 
dicted, with a strange lucidity, the dangers which 
they were about to encounter. These young women 
were absorbed, first of all, with their households, and 
with the poor and with prisoners whom they visited 
in their cells; and their lives were passed in doing 
good, relieving morally and physically those who 
seemed worthy of pity. Adrienne, however, more 
than the others, regardless of her early education, 
shared the liberal ideas of her husband, and pro- 
fessed them with frankness, while preserving a 
delicacy which it would be difficult to describe, and 
which protected her from being a "party woman." 

[27] 



Life of Marquise de La Fayette 

Monsieur de La Fayette, possibly to increase his 
popularity, kept open house, and his wife did the 
honors with charming grace, skilfully receiving each 
guest as her husband would wish, yet preserving her 
own independence when it had to do with persons 
whose presence or whose utterances would have of- 
fended her attachment to the Catholic faith, which 
she felt herself bound to emphasize the more, in 
view of her personal position. She received the Sis- 
ters of the religious orders who asked for protection. 
She encouraged the priests who had not taken the 
civil oath under the law of 1790, and attended faith- 
fully the services in the oratories. Madame de 
Lasteyrie, who relates this, adds: "No considera- 
tion made my mother hesitate when it concerned a 
duty to be done. In fulfilling the duty she found 
consolation on frequent occasions in showing my 
father her respect for liberty of worship, and her 
firmness in maintaining it." 

But I have not here to dwell upon the history of 
the French Revolution, nor upon that of the Marquis 
de La Fayette during those three years when his 
fame "surpassed that of a Necker or a Mirabeau." 
Adored by the people whose interests he cham- 
pioned; defender of the King, but wishing a consti- 
tutional King who should have no power more than 
the President of the United States; a "suspect" 

[28] 




General de La Fayette 

Deputy from Auvergne to the National Assembly in 1789 
Painted bv Guerin 



Life of Marquise de La Fayette 

among the Royalists, as later he became among the 
Jacobins, he was in turn acclaimed and derided, 
heeded and calumniated. 

Made Commander of the "Place de Paris," he 
had to hold in leash an immense population, "exalted 
even to intoxication and stirred even to the very 
dregs." Yet notwithstanding his great popularity 
and devotion, he could not stay the assassinations, 
though at times the assassins themselves were ar- 
rested by his own command. 

Twice he presented his resignation, to the great 
joy of Madame de La Fayette, who was constantly 
concerned and anxious, and who, the second time, 
agreed to receive, representing her husband, the mu- 
nicipality and the delegates of sixty battalions who 
came to implore La Fayette to resume his office of 
Commander. She was not at all embarrassed in 
responding to the leaders, and in giving to the fa- 
mous Santerre, who was the cause of this resigna- 
tion, the reasons why her husband had resigned; 
only too glad to fulfill this delicate task which per- 
mitted their return to private life. This satisfaction 
was not of long duration. La Fayette, having yielded 
to the wish of all the citizens of the Capital, re- 
sumed the duties of his office. At that moment he 
was literally adored and his influence was absolute 
upon the people. But after the Federation (cele- 

[29] 



Life of Marquise de La Fayette 

brated in 1790) the cries of hate succeeded the 
cries of loyalty; and one night after a day of street 
fighting when Madame de La Fayette had trembled 
for the life of her husband, she heard a furious 
crowd coming to their house in the Rue de Lille, 
where she lived since she had left the Noailles man- 
sion. The cry, "Down with La Fayette!" — "Death 
to La Fayette!" reached her ears. The General 
had not come home. They swore they would cut 
off the head of his wife and put it on the point of 
a lance to greet him as he returned. Calm, she kissed 
her children, and then hid them. Then she barred 
the doors and stationed the guards, which luckily 
had been doubled. The assailants went to the rear 
of the house, climbed the wall of the garden, and 
were about to gain entrance to the house when a 
troop of cavalry put them to flight. 

At length, after the arrest of Louis XVI at 
Varenne, his return to the Tuileries, his acceptance 
of the constitutional act, and the vote by which the 
Assembly adopted unanimously, upon the proposal 
of La Fayette, the general amnesty, it was believed 
that a new era had begun. And France had a few 
days of delirious joy. 

The 8th October La Fayette, having tasted his last 
hours of popularity, left Paris with his family for 
Chavaniac. The feeling of deliverance Madame de 

[30] 



Life of Marquise de La Fayette 

La Fayette experienced can be imagined. The whole 
journey was a triumph for her husband. Through 
towns and villages as they passed she did not cease 
to rejoice at what she believ^ed to be the end of his 
political career. Arriving near the chateau de 
Plauzat, where the sister of Madame de La Fayette, 
Pauline de Maintenon, Marquise de Montaigu, 
lived, they could not be received because Monsieur 
de Beaune, father-in-law of the Marquise, did not 
approve of the ideas of Monsieur de La Fayette, and 
would not suffer him to come under his roof. 

They made, therefore, a little halt at Vaire, in 
Auvergne, near the Chateau de Chavaniac, where 
Madame de Montaigu came furtively to greet the 
travelers. It was evening, at sunset. The young 
chatelaine of the chateau, accompanied by two faith- 
ful and discreet domestics, slipped into the obscure 
little inn where she was to find her relatives, while 
outside the villagers were welcoming the General. 
The two sisters rejoiced in seeing each other again, 
and exchanging confidences. Madame de La Fa- 
yette, become an optimist under the influences of her 
husband, believed the revolution finished, and hoped 
to grow old in peace at Chavaniac, surrounded by 
children and husband. Madame de Montaigu, who 
had consented to follow her husband and her fa- 
ther-in-law as "emigres," wept, overcome by dark 
forebodings. 

[31] 



Life of Marquise de La Fayette 

On both sides the adieux were touching. Madame 
de Chavaniac, lovable and spirited, received her 
family with open arms, and soon the Duchess de 
Noailles and her daughter Louise, Viscountess de 
Noailles, the favorite sister of Adrienne, arrived to 
complete the joy of this reunion. They remained 
two weeks at Chavaniac, and this repose was balm 
to the heart of Madame de La Fayette, who little 
thought this meeting was to be their last ! As to the 
General, "he had preserved such simplicity of hab- 
its," says his wife, "after three years in the midst of 
such storms, that he found comfort in the tranquility 
of the scenes of his childhood, and in a sweet flower 
of sentiment which made him happy, — the presence 
of Madame de Chavaniac and Madame d'Ayen 
whom he cherished as two mothers." "I rejoice like 
a lover," he writes the 20th October 1791, "in the 
liberty, the equality, the fundamental change which 
has put all citizens upon the same level, and which 
honors only the legal authorities." "I have as much 
pleasure, and perhaps as much 'amour-propre' in 
this absolute repose, as I have had in fifteen years 
of public activity. Nothing now save the duty of 
our self defence can drag me away from private 
life." 

This "duty" came quickly to him. The General, 
appointed by Monsieur de Narbonne commander of 

[32] 



Life of Marquise de La Fayette 

one of the armies then being formed, left Chavaniac 
two months later, at the end of December, 1791, 
to assume command. War was declared in March, 
1792. Madame de La Fayette remained with her 
children in Aubergne near Madame de Chavaniac, 
more and more consumed with anxiety about her 
husband, as the daily papers and her letters from 
him brought her intelligence of his struggles, and 
of that period, so dramatic, which at the close left 
him but the choice between the scaffold and exile. 
She knew that after the horrors of the 10 June he 
had no fear of writing to the Legislative Assembly 
to severely reproach them for violences committed 
at the Tuileries, demanding punishment of the guilty, 
and coming himself to the tribunal to sustain the 
conviction which had dictated his letter. After that 
he offered his services to the King, and invited him 
to take refuge with the army, but without success. 
On his return to camp he was informed that he 
had been removed from command by the Assembly, 
and ordered to trial. The role of moderator he had 
wanted to play had aroused the hatred of Robes- 
pierre, who exclaimed, "Let us all unite to accuse 
La Fayette!" 

A terrible example must be made of him. 

Then seeing in the army his popularity destroyed 
and his influence compromised, the General became 

[33] 



Life of Marquise de La Fayette 

^ware that the Revolution, of which he had been so 
sincerely the elder son, had turned against him, so 
that he was driven to find an asylum in a neutral 
country, to save his life now proscribed, in the hope 
of one day still serving France and the cause of 
liberty. 

With ten other officers he left in the middle of the 
night, hoping to reach England, but at the frontier 
he encountered an Austrian guard and was immedi- 
ately arrested. Taken to Namur, then to Coblentz, 
finally he was lodged in the prison of Magdebourg, 
as were also Messieurs de Latour-Maubourg, Bureau 
de Pusy and de Lameth. 

The role he had played, the influence he had 
exerted, aroused instantly, as he himself said, a sort 
of European concert, "where it was found that 
Monsieur de La Fayette was not only the champion 
of the French Revolution, but of universal liberty, 
and that his existence was incompatible with the 
safety of the governments of Europe." But Ma- 
dame de La Fayette breathed more freely when she 
learned that her husband was out of France. But 
"this La Fayette, whose shoes were adoringly 
kissed" in 1790, was now no more than the wor§t 
of scoundrels, and his flight put in peril all who be- 
longed to him. Feeling herself menaced, she sent 
away her children from Chavanlac, and established 

[34] 



Life of Marquise de La Fayette 

all these in a domain sufficiently near with Monsieur 
Frestel, preceptor of her son George. But Anastasie, 
the eldest daughter, then fifteen, could not endure 
the thought of not sharing the fate of her mother, 
and came back to Chavaniac the 9th September, 
bringing back her sister and their governess. The 
morning of the loth, while the sisters are dressing, 
a noise is heard in the direction of the village upon 
the main thoroughfare, which continues to increase, 
till suddenly the Court of Honor of the Chateau is 
filled with armed men. The terrified domestics 
scatter and hide. Madame de La Fayette, who 
was writing to her husband, seated in her room, has 
no time to get up from her chair; the chamber is 
invaded. The Marquise is immovable; she seems 
to be as entirely at ease in the midst of these furious 
men as in the drawing rooms of her mother, or in 
those of the rue de Lille, her own. She approaches 
the chief and asks his orders, and when she sees 
that resistance Is impossible, she announces that she 
is ready to follow, and while the pillagers search 
the wardrobes and every corner, she thinks only of 
her children, and gives orders in a low voice to a 
faithful servant to hide them. But Anastasie en- 
ters and kisses her mother, calling her "Mamma," in 
order that she could not remain unknown. "I am 
of an age to be arrested with my mother," she says. 

[ 35 ] 



Life of Marquise de La Fayette 

Madame de La Fayette, notwithstanding her per- 
plexity, replies, "You are right, my child. Your fa- 
ther would be proud of you." But she wishes that 
the little Virginie might be spared, and succeeds In 
hiding her in the fire-place. 

Madame de Chavaniac appears. She is seventy- 
three and is so rooted in her surroundings and at- 
tached to her chateau that no consideration has ever 
been able to decide her to go elsewhere. But she 
declares she must accompany her niece, and the three 
ladies mount the carriages got ready in haste. Noth- 
ing compromising among the papers was found. A 
few days before Madame de La Fayette had burnt 
everything. They arrive the next day at noon at 
Puy. Here the Directory of the Department was 
in session. The prisoners are taken before them, 
and Madame de La Fayette makes an earnest plea 
in behalf of her husband. Making no concessions 
either to Royalists or to Jacobins, she was simple 
and touching, and not fearing to declare herself an 
enthusiast for the opinions of her husband, she ex- 
claimed: "When he shall have become a traitor, I 
consent to be beheaded." 

Discussion followed, but the department did not 
consider itself authorized to set her at liberty. She 
was held in custody with Madame de Chavaniac and 
Anastasie until orders arrived from Roland. 

[36] 



Life of Marquise de La Fayette 

It was from Puy that Madame de La Fayette 
wrote to Brissot that famous letter: "I believe you 
a genuine fanatic for liberty. I am sure that you 
admire — I would almost say that you esteem — 
Monsieur de La Fayette; therefore I address my- 
self to you. If it were wished absolutely to retain 
me as hostage, my imprisonment would be mitigated 
by permitting me to choose Chavaniac on parole and 
on the guarantee of my village. If you wish to serve 
me you will have the satisfaction of having done a 
good deed in ameliorating the lot of one unjustly 
persecuted. I consent to owe you this service. 
(Signed) Noailles La Fayette." 

This "I consent to owe you this service" wounded 
the armour-proper of Brissot, who caused Roland to 
send an answer full of insults against La Fayette and 
against "the superannuated pride of so-called 'no- 
bility.' " But he stopped there, and granted Mad- 
ame de La Fayette what she had requested. The 
three ladies returned, therefore, on parole to Chav- 
aniac, where they found under the devoted and vigi- 
lant protection of Monsieur Frestel, George and 
Virginie, who had passed through all these recent 
experiences with the carelessness of youth. For five 
months Madame de La Fayette was without news of 
her husband. Unceasingly she sent entreaties, even 
to the King of Prussia, that the General might be set 

[37] 



Life of Marquise de La Fayette 

at liberty. "Sire," she wrote to. Frederick the Great, 
"Is it that both the enemies of Monsieur de La Fay- 
ette, and I myself do not speak with eloquence in his 
favor? His enemies prove his virtue and how he is 
to be feared by evil-doers, while I, I show how 
worthy he is of being loved." 

The treason of Dumouriez having caused an in- 
crease of the persecution, and the representative of 
the people, in passing through the country, having 
said that "Citiz^ness'' La Fayette must be arrested, 
she went to find him at the village of Brioude, and 
said : "If in every circumstance I would be glad to be 
surety for Monsieur de La Fayette, I would never 
be willing to be surety for his enemies," "Citi- 
zeness," responded the representative, "these senti- 
ments are worthy of you." 

"I am not embarrassed to know, Monsieur, if they 
are worthy of me. I only wish to be sure that they 
are worthy of Monsieur de La Fayette." 

She did not address any request nor present any 
petition without signing proudly, "La femme La 
Fayette." 

Her nights and days were passed in a continual 
agony, and the sole ray of light in all these sad hours 
was a letter from her husband, which she received 
through the Minister of the United States, Gouver- 
neur Morris, dated from the prison of Magdebourg. 

[38] 




Chavaniac 

Tower in which Gilbert Motier de La Fayette was born 
September 6th, 1757 



Life of Marquise de La Fayette 

More passionately than ever she conceived the 
longing to go to join him, but to do this she must 
hand back her parole which she had given, secure 
safety for her aunt, Madame de Chavaniac, and pay 
some pressing debts. No longer having any money, 
the property of her husband having been seized and 
sold, she applied to Gouverneur Morris, who very 
generously sent to her the amount she needed, 
saying that if circumstances should cause to be lost 
what he had advanced, the Americans would he re- 
sponsible for it. Able thus to quiet the creditors of 
the General, she made ready for her immediate de- 
parture. She hoped that soon liberty would be given 
to her to quit Chavaniac. While waiting she de- 
voted herself to the pious poor of the village, ex- 
horted them on the future life, tried to distract and 
take to walk her younger children, and found her 
consolation with her oldest daughter, Anastasie, this 
young girl, already so serious and so kind, and who 
"from childhood," said her mother, "seemed 
destined to make her feel that in the midst of the 
greatest ills we are still capable of joy." 

This life, relatively calm, lasted but a few months. 
In January, 1794, took place the selection of the 
papers "tainted with feudalism," which were carried 
off with the busts of the King and of Mirabeau, and 
burnt. This was the preliminary of the arrest of 

[39] 



Life of Marquise de La Fayette 

Madame de La Fayette, which the Revolutionary 
Committee had just decided upon. The same scene 
was re-enacted as on the morning of the loth Sep- 
tember, 1792. But this time Madame de La Fay- 
ette went out alone notwithtsanding the tears and 
prayers of Anastasie who wished to follow her. She 
was taken to Brioude where she was put in prison. 
When she enters the room where are also in custody 
(as captives) four or five noble ladies of the region, 
the reception given her is disconcerting; part of the 
aristocracy, and above all that of the provinces, de- 
tested even the name of La Fayette. She then went 
into the little adjacent room and took a seat among 
three bourgeoises who received her with kindly 
warmth. But her sweetness, her condescension, her 
desire to please and help all who, like her, were in 
durance, drew to her the heart of her peers, and they 
quickly caught the admiration which she inspired in 
all those who came near her. 

In this prison, where persons of all classes were 
crowded pele-mele, hardly separated by a screen, the 
quarrels and the daily annoyances rendered life still 
more distressing. Alone, Madame de La Fayette 
awakened general attachment, so much so that Mon- 
sieur Frestel could touch the; heart of the jailer and 
bring to their mother the three children in turn, 
every two weeks. 

[40] 



Life of Marquise de La Fayette 

But the 8th "Prairial" orders came to conduct 
the Marquise to the prison "de la Force" at Paris. 
The captain of the gendarmerie of Brioude came to 
read to her the order of the Committee of General 
Safety. All the prisoners, anxious for her, sur- 
rounded her. "Have no fear, Mesdames," she said, 
with calm; "I am only transferred to Paris." She 
devined too well the menace which this transfer car- 
ried with it, and thought of trying to escape, but 
abandoned It for fear of drawing new rigors upon 
her companions of the prison of Brioude. Her 
children, advised of her departure, came to say adieu. 
Anastasie, supported by the approval of Monsieur 
Frestel, obtained from her mother permission to 
follow her, and to go to Paris to the Minister of the 
United States to ask for help and succor, but she 
could not get the permit which she went to Implore 
at Puy, which was refused her with coarse jokes and 
gross insults. Madame de La Fayette took her de- 
parture alone In a post chaise, thanks to the devotion 
of the servants of Chavaniac, who sold their jewels, 
in order that she should not be carried in a common 
cart from brigade to brigade till Paris should be 
reached. 

The Marquise remained a fortnight at the Paris 
prison "de la Force," and was then transferred to 
that of Plessis, formerly a college where Monsieur 

[41] 



Life of Marquise de La Fayette 

de La Fayette was brought up and which had been 
made Into a prison. This was the moment when 
Robespierre had organized a terror in "The Ter- 
ror." Sixty victims each day were sent to the block. 
Madame de La Fayette waited fifty-two days for 
her turn, which by miracle never came. Every 
morning she saw go out a convoy of twenty persons 
for the scaffold. "The thought that you will soon 
be of that number," she writes, "makes you stronger 
for such a spectacle." At Plessis she found her 
cousin, Madame de Durras. They could not repress 
their terrible anxiety as to the fate of those dear 
to them. One day Adrienne had to inform her cousin 
of the death of her parents, the Duke and Duchess 
de Mouchy, and she herself lived in the continual 
fear of learning of that of her own mother and of 
her sister de Noailles, whom she knew to be in cus- 
tody in the Luxembourg. When the atrocious Robes- 
pierre had perished, and the massacres of the Revo- 
lutionary Tribunal ceased, she learned their fate. 
This is the story: 

The 8th October, 1793, the widow, old and feeble, 
of the Duke de Noailles (Marechal de Noailles) 
who had just died, her daughter-in-law, the Duchess 
d'Ayen and her grand daughter, Louise, Viscountess 
of Noailles, who had remained near her mother 
with her children, awaiting more favorable circum- 

[42] 



Life of Marquise de La Fayette 

stances to leave her and join her husband in England 
— all were arrested and shut up in their own house, 
the Noailles mansion in Paris, where they were kept 
till spring. Then they were incarcerated in April in 
the prison of the Luxembourg, and at length, des- 
tined for the block, they were taken to the old Con- 
ciergerie where they were offered one cot for three. 
One of the women prisoners gave her cot to the 
Marechale, and Madame d'Ayen seated herself upon 
the other. But the Viscountess, who at Luxem- 
bourg had been heroic in her devotion and filial self- 
denial, remained standing, replying to those who 
pressed her to take a little repose, "Why seek re- 
pose on the eve of Eternity?" "This angel," says 
one of the survivors, "was unceasing in prayer; her 
eyes fixed in contemplation of that heaven which she 
was about to enter, and her beautiful countenance re- 
flecting the serenity of her soul. Never was seen 
such calm in such an abiding place of horror." The 
22d July 1794, she maintained, as well as her mother, 
the same serenity in the cart which bore them off to 
the place of execution. A priest who had promised 
them his aid during the supreme hour, slipping 
through the crowd, was able to send them a final ab- 
solution. What a spectacle ! The storm of horror 
bursts upon the city. The old lady, the Marechale, 
is jostled upon the miserable seat, a board without 

[43] 



Life of Marquise de La Fayette 

any back. The wind blows off her bonnet and tosses 
her gray hair. The Duchess d'Ayen is the first made 
to mount the scaffold; her collar is roughly cut. In 
her striped robe, white and blue, she encourages those 
about her and remains in an attitude of noble and re- 
signed devotion. When her turn to be sacrificed ar- 
rives, the executioner tears out a handful of her hair, 
her bonnet being held by a single pin. The poignancy 
of her pain is depicted on her countenance, but is 
immediately effaced by her sweetness of expression. 
At length Louise, Viscountess of Noailles, all in 
white, a veritable angel, an incarnation of purity and 
love, follows her mother. Her beautiful blond hair 
is profanely sacrificed, but she had made the sacrifice 
of her life, and is now concerned only with her fellow 
sufferers, speaking to a young man who climbs with 
her the steps of the scaffold, and blasphemes. "Have 
pity. Monsieur, and ask forgiveness of God." She 
left three children and a husband she cherished. 
One cannot linger upon such memories without 
shuddering. But perhaps in the divine and mysteri- 
ous plan the blood of such precious and noble victims 
in pouring out upon the soil of France has expiated 
her faults and purified her soul. 

When Madame de La Fayette learned from Ma- 
dame de Durras the events of this 22d July her grief 
was so violent that she no longer wished to live. 

[44] 



Life of Marquise de La Fayette 

"Thank God," she writes to her children, "for hav- 
ing preserved my life, my reason and my strength, 
and do not regret having been far away from me. 
God has saved me from a revolt against him, but 
I would not have been able to bear even the appear- 
ance of any human consolation." And at another 
time to her son: "The thought of following those so 
dear would have changed for me even into sweetness 
the awful details of this last agony." 

The Terrorist Convention having ended, 
"drowned in its own blood and exhausted with its 
own crimes," the prisons were opened, but Madame 
de La Fayette was retained, the name she bore being 
execrated by the Revolutionists, who had not been 
able to drag her husband into their crimes and ex- 
cesses. Finally, thanks to the zeal of Monsieur 
Monroe, who had succeeded Gouverneur Morris as 
Minister of the United States, and to that of Ma- 
dame de Durras, she was released the 22d January, 
and rejoined her children at Chavaniac. They 
came as far as possible on the way to meet their 
mother, and their joy cheered the Marquise, com- 
pletely exhausted in body and mind. 

This woman, admirable as she was miserable, 
who had seen her grandfather, her mother, her 
sister, all her nearest and dearest relatives and 
friends, dragged to the most awful of deaths of the 

[45] 



Life of Marquise de La Fayette 

block, at the foot of which, one might say, she her- 
self had passed more than a year, having now es- 
caped the claws of the implacable Robespierre, de- 
termined to realize her purpose of rejoining her 
husband! First of all she wished to assure the fu- 
ture of her aunt, and to control that of her son. She 
decided to send George to America with Monsieur 
Frestel, and procured the necessary passports, con- 
fident that Monsieur de La Fayette would be glad to 
think of his son surrounded by friends. "I send you 
my son," she wrote to Washington, "in order that 
he may pass, near you, a life of calm, where he can 
resume his studies, interrupted during these three 
years of distress ; where far from those places which 
could either beat down his soul or too much excite 
it with indignation, he could work to qualify himself 
to discharge the duties of a citizen of the United 
States, whose sentiments and principles would be 
always in accord with those of a citizen of France." 
This departure was heart-rending, and the Mar- 
quise, in order to regain a little strength, remained 
two weeks with her aunt. The Chateau of Chava- 
niac had been taken and pillaged during the Terror, 
and Madame de Chavaniac had not been able to 
rescue even a bed! But thanks to the sale of the 
diamonds of the youngest sister of Adrienne, Rosa- 
lie de Montclair, Viscountess de Gramont, she was 

[46] 



Life of Marquise de La Fayette 

able to buy back the old family nest. This devoted 
sister, in passing through Paris from Franche-Comte 
in Auvergne, came to see Madame de La Fayette the 
instant she learned of her return. To avoid meeting 
Terrorists in public vehicles, she and her husband 
having no money to hire a private carriage, made the 
long journey on foot, bringing their little children in 
baskets swung over the back of a horse. 

Soon Madame de La Fayette secured the pass- 
ports so much desired for herself and her daughters, 
and they embarked at Dunkirk for Hamburg on an 
American vessel, and then went on to Altona in 
Prussia. The other sister, beloved of Adrienne, 
Madame de Montaigu, was there then, a refugee at 
her aunt's, the Marquise de Tesse. This Madame 
de Tesse, of whom we shall speak later, was the sister 
of the Duke d'Ayen, and had always been greatly at- 
tached to her nieces and to their husbands, and es- 
pecially to her nephew, the Marquis de La Fayette, 
whose liberal and philosophic principles she ad- 
mired. With wise forethought she had realized 
upon some securities before emigrating from 
France, and owing to this relative ease in her 
finances she had welcomed Madame de Montaigu in 
a little house which she had rented at Altona, and 
whose door was always open to those who came to 
knock there. She learned with joy of the arrival of 

[47] 



Life of Marquise de La Fayette 

Adrienne and her daughters. As to Madame Mont- 
algu, still under the horrible memory of the massacre 
of her mother and of her sister, she experienced a 
terrible emotion in again seeing Madame de La 
Fayette, in talking over with her those distressing 
events. Aided by Madame de Tesse, she did all in 
her power to dissuade the travellers from carrying 
out their plan of going to General La Fayette, and 
pointed out to Madame de La Fayette all the dif- 
ficulties which awaited her, and the risk to her health, 
still so delicate, which she would incur. 

But nothing could shake her resolution so firmly 
taken; and Madame and Mesdemoiselles de La 
Fayette left Altona a few days after their arrival, 
and turned their steps toward Vienna, where, at the 
request of the Prince de Rosemberg, a former friend 
of the Noailles, they were received by the Emperor, 
without the knowledge of his Ministers. Madame de 
La Fayette asked only the privilege for herself and 
daughters to share the prison of her husband. 

"Oh, I will grant you that;" answered the 
Emperor: "As to setting him at liberty, that is im- 
possible for me. My hands are tied." Doubtless 
ignorant himself of the regime at the prison of 
Olmutz, he declared that Monsieur de La Fayette 
was very well treated. After a week of waiting, the 
Minister of War came to place in the hands of Ma- 

[48] 



Life of Marquise de La Fayette 

dame de La Fayette the permission so much de- 
sired. 

"I must beg you to give careful reflection," he said, 
"upon the step you are about to take. I ought to 
warn you that you will have to submit to a regime 
that will have serious inconveniences both for you 
and your daughters." 

But the Marquise was unwilling to listen to any- 
thing, and left Vienna the same day even for Ol- 
mutz. In spite of their extreme youth the daughters 
were as resolved as their mother. "How are we 
going to endure what awaits us on the morrow?" said 
Madame de La Fayette. The journey for them ad- 
vanced slowly. At length the ist October arrived. 
The morning had been foggy, when suddenly the 
sun mastered the clouds which darkened it, and on 
the horizon the old citadel of Olmutz silhouetted its 
two great towers against a sky of azure. At this 
view Madame de La Fayette could not restrain her 
emotion. Tears came, and standing up in the car- 
riage she intoned with her daughters the Canticle 
of Tobias, thanking God for having safely brought 
them through such sufferings, sacrifices and efforts 
to the object of all their affection. 

Since his arrest at Liege, Monsieur de La Fayette 
had been at first thrown into the prison of Magde- 
bourg, with his two colleagues of the General As- 

[49] 



Life of Marquise de La Fayette 

sembly, Messieurs de Bureau de Pusy and de Latour- 
Maubourg, 

What this prison was is indescribable: boxed up 
in a cell three feet wide by five and a half feet long, 
mouldy with dampness and lighted only by a minute 
iron grill, the valorous general was burning with 
fever and tortured with insomnia. At last upon 
the order of the physician, a single hour of walking 
outside the cell was granted him; and thanks to the 
Government of the United States, a few letters 
from his wife were delivered to him, to some of 
which he tried to send answers by writing with a 
toothpick and lemon juice on the margin of some 
books lent to him. 

He learned also, by one or two papers sent 
secretly to him, of the events which had taken place in 
France. The image of those scaffolds, standing 
through all that lugubrious year of 1793, haunted his 
imagination, made him tremble for those near to 
him, and plunged him into the depths of sadness. At 
the end of a year of these tortures, physical and 
moral, he was informed that Prussia and Austria 
had negotiated on the subject of his capture, and 
that, handed over to the Austrian Government, he 
was to be transferred to Olmutz, as well as his 
friends, from whom he continued to be separated, 
and who had never, during all their captivity, the 

[50] 



Life of Marquise de La Fayette 

right to see him or mutually to exchange their news. 
The regime of Olmutz was still more rigorous 
than Magdebourg — no paper, no ink, the white 
leaves of books torn out. He was three years with- 
out letters from his wife and without being able to 
write to her! Then it was that an American named 
Hugger, living in Vienna with his Hanoverian doc- 
tor, Monsieur Holman, got to the prisoner a plan 
which they had conceived for his escape. One day 
when accompanied by his keeper the general was 
making his usual promenade, he saw coming towards 
him two horsemen whom he was watching for. 
While Holman jumps quickly from his saddle, 
grasps and tries to gag the keeper. Hugger gives 
his horse to La Fayette and calls to him, "Go to 
Hoff." The general thinks he says, "Go off," and 
takes the first road he sees. When his friends ar- 
rive at Hoff, the rendezvous, they do not find La 
Fayette. Pursued, caught, brought back. La Fayette 
sees the prison doors close in upon him more rigidly 
than ever. The surveillance became more strict, and 
all going out was forbidden. Deprived of every- 
thing, sick in body and soul, with no communication 
with his kind, with no news of his wife, in ignorance 
of the fate of family and friends, and even of the 
names of those whose heads continued to fall on 

[51] 



Life of Marquise de La Fayette 

the scaffold, La Fayette lay for a whole year in the 
bitterness of complete discouragement. 

The morning of ist October, 1785, he was seated 
at his tiny table, re-reading for the twentieth time the 
only book left him, when he heard in the little pas- 
sageway that separated the two bolted entrances of 
his cell, a sound of unusual steps. The key turned in 
the lock, the door groaned on its hinges, and, opened. 
He saw standing before him Madame de La Fayette 
and his two daughters, who threw open their arms 
to him. He believed Heaven had opened! That 
God Himself had sent angels ! 

To describe the scene of this reunion is impossible 
for those who have not suffered as these wretched 
souls. Madame de La Fayette wears the mark upon 
her beautiful features of this suffering, and her 
misery has greatly changed her. Yet she has in 
her face a surprising calm, an air of resolution most 
imposing. Anastasie and Virginie, tall, slender, 
pretty, evoking admiration from their father who 
had aged very perceptibly. His cheeks are hollow, 
his lungs have caused him continual distress. But 
what matters now all the ills and all the sadness ! 
They are once more reunited and rescued by the 
mutual support of their tenderness. 

The regime of Olmutz was neither changed nor 
bettered. Even the forks found in the luggage of 
the Marquise were seized. She was refused permis- 

[52] 



Life of Marquise de La Fayette 

sion to attend mass with her daughters on Sunday 
in the adjacent chapel where it was celebrated, per- 
mission to have a wife of one of the soldiers wait 
upon her, and refused permission to write to the 
Emperor, who had authorized her to make her re- 
quests directly to him. She was reminded at first 
that she had agreed to submit to the same treatment 
as that of her husband. 

"I conform to that treatment with pleasure," she 
answers; "and we all three repeat it, that we are 
happier here in sharing the severity of the prison 
with Monsieur de La Fayette than anywhere else 
in the world without him." 

They continue, therefore, to eat with their fingers 
from the pot in which their dinner was given them, 
where soup, meat and vegetables are mixed to- 
gether, continue to wait upon themselves, to make 
their own beds, to shiver when it is cold, when a fire 
is lighted only two hours during the day, at six 
in the morning and at four in the evening. The 
young ladies have a tiny room with but one bed. To 
enter their parents' room, they have to pass under 
crossed swords of soldiers, which makes the oldest 
daughter blush to the ears, and the youngest assume 
a proud and scornful mien. How fine they are, self- 
forgetful, brave, proud, always gay, these daughters 
of the grand house of the Noailles! Anastasie, 

[53] 



Life of Marquise de La Fayette 

with deft fingers, cuts out garments for her sister, 
mends her mother's gowns; and as her father's shoes 
have been already re-soled a dozen times and are 
worthless, she makes for him, from an old riding 
habit, a pair of stout slippers. Madame de La 
Fayette works under direction; the General tells 
stories; the rebellious Virginie weaves plots. She 
plans to put the prisoners in the other tower into 
communication with her parents. She arranges a 
code of signals from her window; at length she suc- 
ceeds in dropping a basket suspended by a string to 
a functionary, whose interest she has won by her 
kindness. He takes from it the food she has saved 
for him and by the same basket sends up from the 
other tower of Monsieur de Latour Maubourg, a 
little letter filled with news ! 

But lack of air and exercise, the privations and 
the regime, end in exhausting the strength of Ma- 
dame de La Fayette. She falls ill. Her family beg 
her to write to the Emperor for permission to go to 
Vienna to consult a physician. The request is re- 
jected. If she goes out of Olmutz, it will be never 
to return. 

"I have owed it to my family to beg necessary 
relief for my health,' responds Madame de La 
Fayette; "but they know that the price you thus put 
upon it will never be accepted by me. I will never 

[54] 




Chateau de Chavaniac 

Fireplace 



Life of Marquise de La Fayette 

again expose myself to the horror of a separation 
from my husband." During eleven months she suf- 
fered from severe fever. No kindness was shown 
her. Not even an easy chair was granted her. 
From her miserable pallet she was borne to a com- 
mon straw chair. It was during this illness that she 
wrote the biography of her mother, the Duchess 
d'Ayen, with a toothpick, a bit of "China ink," and 
upon the margin of the pages of a volume of Buffon. 
To read today these delicate pages, full of resigna- 
tion and of such an extremely high moral character, 
it would seem as if one were reading the life of a 
saint, written by another saint. 

The only chagrin that escaped the lips of Madame 
de La Fayette in those days of agony, was that of be- 
ing without tidings of her son, for no communication 
with the United States whatsoever was permitted. 
But nothing changed the serenity, the saintliness, of 
this gentle invalid. "In seeing her always the same," 
says Madame de Lasteyrie, "always rejoicing in the 
good whenever she found it, and in the consolations 
which she had about her, we were less anxious than 
we ought to have been." The sympathy of all 
Europe, however, commenced to be aroused for the 
prisoners of Olmutz. The King of Prussia, the 
Emperor of Austria, received the most touching en- 
treaties, and the most diverse: England with Fox, 

[55] 



Life of Marquise de La Fayette 

America represented by Gouverneur Morris, made 
pressing and earnest efforts. 

The 26th July 1797, the Emperor sent an emissary 
to Olmutz that liberty would be accorded La Fayette 
and his companions if they would take oath never 
again to put foot in Austria. This the prisoners 
proudly refused. "I have duties I owe to the United 
States and above all to France," answered La Fa- 
yette; "and I ought not to promise anything that 
could be contrary in any possible fashion to those 
rights which my country has in my person." Madame 
de La Fayette, although at the end of her endurance, 
approved highly the attitude of her husband, whose 
sentiments responded always to those which she most 
desired that he should have. 

The Emperor, dissatisfied, seemed to lose all in- 
terest in the captives. New instances were necessary, 
and new devotion, to obtain, at last, on the 1 8th Sep- 
tember, 1797, the opening of the prison doors of 
Olmutz. Monsieur de La Fayette had been im- 
prisoned five years ! his wife and daughters nearly 
two — twenty-three months. The departure from 
Olmutz was carried out under an officer charged with 
the duty of conducting them as far as the frontier 
of the hereditary states of Austria. This first stage 
of the journey was made with precaution. 

At Dresden the Messieurs de Latour Maubourg 

[56] 



Life of Marquise de La Payette 

and de Pusy joined them. The joy of seeing one 
another again, and of feeling themselves once more 
free, was lessened only by the delicate health of Ma- 
dame de La Fayette, whose exhausted condition was 
seriously augmented by the fatigue of the journey. 
All, moreover, after such a long captivity, were 
severely tried by the new air outside prison walls. 
But they quickly adjusted themselves to it, and day 
by day regained new strength. Everywhere they 
passed they were received with marks of en- 
thusiastic kindness and sympathy. Arriving at Ham- 
burg, they decided to go to rejoin Madame de Tesse 
and de Montaigu, whose affectionate devotion and 
unremitting efforts had contributed to their libera- 
tion. Madame de Tesse had bought a little place at 
Witmold, on the other side of the city of Ploen and 
separated from it by a lake. She had continued to 
shelter here Monsieur and Madame de Montaigu 
and their children. Their united resources were 
next to nothing. But on this farm there was a 
"basse-cour," some cows, a field of grain, a little 
apple orchard; and with some fishing of Monsieur 
de Tesse and the shooting preserves of Monsieur de 
Montaigu, one could live ! 

It was here that the prisoners of Olmutz were 
welcomed. When, after the German fashion, the 
postillion sounded the fanfare which announced their 

[57] 



Life of Marquise de La Fayette 

approach, Madame de Montaigu could hardly re- 
strain her excess of joy. She jumped into a little 
sail boat, crossed the lake, and ran to Ploen to meet 
her sister. She found in her sister, it seemed to her, 
also her mother, and the sister of Noailles and all 
whom she had lost. A little flotilla of small boats 
transported the escaped prisoners. The counte- 
nances of all were transfigured with happiness; and 
those of Monsieur de Montaigu and of Madame de 
Tesse, who awaited them on the shore, were not less 
radiant. The General had presented to his sister- 
in-law and to his aunt Monsieur de Latour-Mau- 
bourg. Messieurs de Pusy and de Lometh, who were 
established on the other side of the lake; but the 
waters of this small lake, ordinarily so placid, were 
constantly ruffled by the incessant coming and going 
of these gentlemen. 

What charming reunions ! What a new life in 
this home of Madame de Tesse ! What gayety in 
the salon and at table. Everything was talked about, 
but above all politics, and when the conversation 
flagged Madame de Tesse quickly spurred it on. 

Madame de Tesse was one of the most accom- 
plished types of the women of the eighteenth cen- 
tury; piercing eyes, delicate mouth, a little drawn by 
slight nervous twitching, she yet had in speaking in- 
finite grace and still more spirit, biting, sententious, 

[58] 



Life of Marquise de La Fayette 

passionate, yet charitable and kind, always the central 
figure in all discussions. 

As to La Fayette, he was so little changed that one 
grew young in listening to him. "Gilbert," wrote 
Madame de Montaigu, "is just as kind, just as sim- 
ple in his manners, as in the past, just as affectionate 
with his friends, just as considerate in all disputes." 
He was unchanged to his last hour, preserving always 
the same liberal ideals, ready to risk his life anew for 
the high destiny which he craved for France. 

Madame de La Fayette gradually grew better; 
carefully tended, protected by the tenderness of 
friends, she regained strength and gayety. Gifted 
with a mind of wide reach, very cultivated and ac- 
curate, with an eloquence natural to her, she knew 
how to argue with a manner embarrassing to her 
adversaries and put into her conversation what the 
finest art could add to natural tendencies. 

A young and pure love soon blossomed in the 
midst of these diverse surroundings. Charles de 
Latour Maubourg, brother of the one imprisoned at 
Olmutz, had also come to Witmold. The grace, 
the charm, and the moral worth of Anastasie de La 
Fayette conquered his heart. The young girl had not 
a centime; all that had been left to her parents hav- 
ing been seized, pillaged and taken over by the Gov- 
ernment. For the same reason the young man had 

[59] 



Life of Marquise de La Fayette 

but thirty thousand francs, capital and income. But 
the young souls loved each other, and not-with- 
standing the protestations of Madame de Tesse, who 
pretended that only savages ever married without 
any money. Monsieur and Madame de La Fayette 
accepted the youthful suitor. Moreover the kind 
aunt harbored no ill will against them, but heartily 
joined her nieces in making the trousseau for the 
young fiancee, who was married the 9th of May, 
1798, by an old proscribed abbe in the most beautiful 
room of the house. Her modest gown of muslin 
embroidered by her aunts, became her charmingly. 
The wedding was simple but touching, and all pres- 
ent, beginning with Madame de Tesse, who declared 
herself incredulous, but whose acts belied her words, 
were deeply moved. 

Proscribed, Monsieur de La Fayette could not 
enter France, and at the end of a few months he hired 
a house at Vianen, in the neighborhood of Utrecht, 
and went to establish himself there with his family, 
including the young husband and wife. Madame de 
Grammont, Madame de Montaigu came to join 
them for a little while, but from the material point 
of view they lacked everything at Vianen. Not- 
withstanding the good will of Madame de La Fa- 
yette and the aid her sisters rendered her in put- 
ting their purse in common with hers, one fared but 

[60] 



Life of Marquise de La Fayette 

lightly at the table of the General; and the mistress 
of the house had at times, as her only resources, to 
serve eggs "a la neige" as "plat de resistance" for 
fifteen or twenty hungry guests. 

What laughter, what pleasant jokes these priva- 
tions provoked! Nothing could detract from the 
happiness tasted by the sisters in this reunion. The 
cold was icy. In the evening they gathered in a 
room without any fire, muffled in their long 
"pelisses," and with little care for the wind which 
whistled through the cracks of the thin partitions, 
and for the "chauffrettes" which burnt out. Thus 
they passed at times the whole night, recalling the 
memories of the past and in prayer. 

The great event of this year (1798) was the re- 
turn from America of George de La Fayette. He 
brought back to his parents letters from Washington, 
and his own presence at Vianen was a joy beyond 
words to the heart of his mother. Madame de La 
Fayette, of whom alone the name had not been en- 
rolled upon the list of the "Emigres," could return 
to France, and never did her high spirit show such 
resourcefulness as in the business matters which she 
must disentangle for the welfare of the entire family. 
She succeeded in straightening out the whole matter 
of the succession of the Duchess d'Ayen, and in re- 
covering a part of her property. "We are all, let 

[61] 



Life of Marquise de La Fayette 

us hope, at the last year of our extreme embarrass- 
ment," she writes to her sister, "and there is much 
encouragement for continued activity in seeing what 
has been already accomplished." 

In the division of the property she herself re- 
ceived from the inheritance of her mother the Cha- 
teau of "La Grange," to the great satisfaction of her 
husband, who writes to her, "Apparently you are at 
'La Grange,' my dear heart, in that peaceful retreat, 
where we are destined, I hope, to find repose together 
from the vicissitudes of our life." But she did not 
lose from her sight for an instant the return of Mon- 
sieur de La Fayette, and made every possible ar- 
rangement which her good sense prompted. At 
length, on the "i8th Brumaire," the 9th November, 
1799, when the Directory was overturned, the Coun- 
cil of Five Hundred dissolved, and Bonaparte called 
to power, Madame de La Fayette, with her accurate 
weighing of the conditions, determined that it would 
be possible to return without hesitation and without 
authorization, and obtained for him a passport under 
a fictitious name. She had already obtained authori- 
zation for the return of her children and her son-in- 
law. "The joy of having seen Anastasie is inex- 
pressible." Here is her letter of the 7th November : 

"As to Virginie she is charming; the delicacy 
of her spirit and of her judgment, the elevation of 

[62] 



Life of Marquise de La Fayette 

her soul, all this it is a pleasure to see developing in 
her." 

Monsieur de La Fayette left Vianen as soon as he 
received the passport obtained through his wife, and 
started on his journey to a friend's house in Paris. 
He wrote at once a letter to Bonaparte, who showed 
signs of displeasure. Madame de La Fayette went 
to see him, and was received in a courteous fashion. 
"The arrival of Monsieur de La Fayette," said he, 
"blocks my course in re-establishing my principles, 
and forces me to sail close to the wind. I conjure 
him, therefore, to avoid all display." 

"That is my husband's intention," she replied; and 
the day after they left for the Chateau de La Grange. 
This Chateau is one of the most beautiful of "La 
Brie," and dates, it is said, from the First Crusades. 
Its old walls are blackened by time, its battlements 
austere, its massive entrance framed in by two great 
towers, and its arch festooned with thick masses of 
ivy. The court is spacious, enclosed on all sides 
except on the right, where an outlook upon the sur- 
rounding country is had, graceful and beautiful with 
its meadows which descend to the river bank, and its 
woods which hem in the horizon. Here the prisoners 
of Olmutz felt the soothing influences of a home, and 
their days passed quickly and agreeably. Monsieur 
de La Fayette ploughed, planted, raised cattle, and 

[63] 



Life of Marquise de La Fayette 

directed all the affairs of the farm, to the great de- 
light of his wife, who now led the sort of life she had 
always wished for. 

Little by little, largely because of her influence, 
the "emigres" of Witmold were re-established in 
France. Madame de Montaigu, Madame de Tesse, 
and many of the friends of those "evil days," and 
among the most distinguished Charles Fox and his 
wife must be mentioned, came to visit them at "La 
Grange." Virginie was married here to Monsieur 
Louis de Lasteyrle, a handsome young man, kind and 
intelligent, whom Madame de Montaigu had pre- 
sented to her niece, and who was pleasing to her in 
every way. She was nineteen, but her animated 
face was so fresh and blooming that she would be 
thought to be hardly fifteen. George de La Fayette, 
who had a passionate desire to serve France, obtained 
the rank of lieutenant in a regiment of the Hussars; 
but Bonaparte, because of his father, did not like 
him, and in spite of his devotion and heroism, he 
made his career very difficult for him. La Fayette, 
who maintained a reserved manner with the First 
Consul, emphasized this reserve in proportion as the 
Emperor made himself more powerful. He did not 
consider him as the true representative of the prin- 
ciples of 1789. On the other hand, the Royalists, 
while visiting at La Grange, ridiculed the monar- 

[64] 



Life of Marquise de La Fayette 

chical pomp and ceremony revived by Napoleon. It 
was a war of words, witty, satirical, at times pro- 
found. 

Madame de La Fayette continued to receive her 
visitors with her exquisite charm. She gave herself 
freely to all, but devoted herself to the most serious 
matters. Her pecuniary resources still remained re- 
duced, as also those of her sister, Madame de Mont- 
aigu, but they both resolved to erect a monument 
to the memory of the Duchess d'Ayen, and of the 
Viscountess de Noailles, on the sacred spot where 
they had been buried. It was owing to a poor work- 
ing woman. Mademoiselle Paris, that they learned 
that during the last weeks of The Terror, the thirteen 
hundred victims of the scaffold had been thrown into 
a single pit, — at Picpus, on the St. Mande road in 
Paris, in a vacant lot near an old monastery. They 
opened a subscription among the relatives of the 
massacred, and as time passed the undertaking de- 
veloped. Tombs were erected. The names of 1,310 
victims were engraved upon tablets of bronze. A 
chapel was built and nuns were installed in the con- 
vent, bought and restored. 

This work at Picpus was the last of her tasks, and 
the supreme consolation of the Marquise, whose 
health became seriously affected. 

George de La Fayette, becoming discouraged, had 

[65] 



Life of Marquise de La Fayette 

returned to live at La Grange with his charming 
wife, Emilie de Tracy, who surrounded her mother- 
in-law with the same tenderness as that lavished upon 
her by her own daughters, Madame de Latour 
Maubourg and Madame de Lasteyrie. The three 
families were living near her at Paris, at Madame 
de Tesse's, when in December, 1807, the invalid 
entered into that period of suffering from which she 
never emerged. God and her husband were the 
absorbing thought of her last moments. "Even in 
her delirium," wrote the General, in an admirable 
letter to Monsieur de Latour Maubourg, "she pre- 
served an unchanging gentleness, and that wish 
always to find something kind to say, that gratitude 
for all the thoughtful attentions shown her, that fear 
of tiring others, that sense of the need of being useful 
to others, that subtlety in the definition of her 
thoughts, that sense of right and that elegance which 
evoked the admiration of all who knew her." 

Madame de La Fayette is at her last hour, but her 
heart remains alert. Her sister, Madame de Mon- 
taigu, Madame de Latour Maubourg, Monsieur and 
Madame George de La Fayette, Madame de Las- 
teyrie, carrying In her arms her youngest child, sur- 
round her, stifling their sobs. 

"Be submissive, my children," says the dying 
friend; "have faith In God, and remember that word 

[66] 



Life of Marquise de La Fayette 

of the Prophet, 'Say to the just that all goes well for 
him.' " She calls her husband. "How happy I have 
been. "What a privilege to be your wife," And a 
little later; "Are you a Christian?" she asks him. 
"Ah! — No — I understand. — You are above all a 
'LaFayettist!' " 

"You are also, I think," replies the General, with 
a smile of sadness. 

"Yes," she answers, firmly; "and I would have 
given my life for that 'sect,' yet before everything 
else one must be a Christian." 

She has read to her prayers for the dying, blesses 
for the last time her children, holds her husband's 
hand in hers, murmurs once more, "I am all yours," 
and quietly passes away. 

The Marquise de La Fayette, this woman so high 
minded, so heroic in the tragic events of life, so kind, 
so affable, so simple in the daily routine, so French 
and so Catholic — is dead! 

It is the 24th December. It is midnight! How 
striking is the harmony of the coincidence of this 
date and the hour, in the presence of such a soul! 
In the chamber of death, where, from the church 
hard by mounts the joyous sound of the Christmas 
bells and the voices of the singers of the canticle of 
the "Coming of the Lord" and of the "Gloria in 
Excelsis," the beautiful but emaciated face of Ma- 

[67] 



Life of Marquise de La Fayette 

dame de La Fayette is radiant with an Immortal 
serenity. It will ever remain a precious souvenir 
in the minds of those who are there, now desolate, 
who weep for her, like that star of the solemn night 
which shall guide them towards the eternal haven 
where now she herself is already arrived. 

At Picpus, according to her wish, her burial took 
place. 

The General preserved a passionate cult for his 
wife, without whose companionship he must go on 
living for twenty-seven years. For several years he 
was unwilling to quit La Grange, where he could keep 
nearer to him the memory of her, without whom, he 
said, there was for him in life neither happiness nor 
prosperity possible. When he was sent back to 
active and to political life, how often did he regret 
not having longer at his command the wise counsels 
and the aid of that remarkable woman, who was also 
his very conscience ! In that triumphal journey in 
America in 1824, which he made as the guest of the 
President of the United States, of which history in 
its most pompous narrative has nothing to equal, he 
writes, "I am always mediating upon that admirable 
sentiment which compelled her, like an instinct, to 
push us towards the United States. Ah, if we could 
have but kept her with us to enjoy what she seemed 
to foresee!" How proud she would have been in- 

[68] 



Life of Marquise de La Fayette 

deed of the homage rendered her husband by that 
nation, so grateful for his services, so persevering 
in its friendhness, and so generous in its liberality! 

When in 1834 the General, enfeebled by age, his 
influence diminished by recent political events, felt 
his end approaching, he was seen searching with 
trembling hand the locket he always wore about his 
neck, containing the portrait of his wife. He would 
grasp it and press it to his lips I 

"Thus," says Monsieur Guizot, "always separated 
from the entire world, alone with his thoughts and 
alone with the image of the companion of his life, 
La Fayette died!" 

At Picpus also he was buried, by the side of her 
who, according to her own expression, had "passion- 
ately and worldly yet Christianly" loved him. 




[69] 



Ralph Fletcher Seymour 

Publisher 

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